Why Equality Matters

December 19, 2010 8:18 pm ET by Richard Socarides

The following is a column by Richard Socarides, president of Equality Matters.

As we prepare to
launch EqualityMatters.org, Congress has just approved a bill repealing "don't
ask, don't tell." This highly significant victory is an important milestone in
our effort to secure full equality. No one said it better than our
president, who deserves substantial credit for helping to bring about this day:

"It is time
to close this chapter in our history," President Obama said in a
statement. "It is time to recognize that sacrifice, valor and integrity
are no more defined by sexual orientation than they are by race or gender,
religion or creed."

The president is
making a crucial connection here. This victory not only means that gays and
lesbians will be allowed to serve with the dignity they deserve, but that
America is beginning to recognize that our struggle is for civil rights.
America is beginning to understand that gay rights are human rights.

In order to win
the "don't ask" effort, we needed not only to convince our friends that now was
the time to act, but we also had overcome the homophobia of the obstructionist
Republican apparatus and conservative movement. Although eight Republicans joined the Senate vote to finally
right this injustice, within an hour of the vote, Bryan Fischer of the American
Family Association said, "we are now stuck with sexual deviants serving openly
in the U.S. military..."

"It's a
tragic day for America," Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at
the Family Research Council, told the Associated Press. "But I don't think
this will really affect the marriage issue very much. It's been rejected by
voters in 31 states."

That's exactly
where Mr. Sprigg is wrong.

Our culture is
changing rapidly. Most Americans believe that gays and lesbians are entitled to
the same rights and responsibilities as their fellow citizens, including now
over 50 percent who believe in marriage equality.

We see other
signs of progress too. For example, Ricky Martin, one of the biggest pop
music stars of all time and Ken Mehlman, a former Republican Party
chair turned Wall Street banker, felt comfortable enough to publicly proclaim
their sexuality. Now, the gay high school kid on Fox's Glee has a
great, show-stealing boyfriend. A New Jersey teenager's suicide gave
new poignancy to a PSA campaign in which Americans from all walks of life,
famous and not, spoke openly and candidly in record numbers about what it means
to be gay and how "it gets better" - thanks to activist and writer
Dan Savage.

In Washington,
however, we have missed opportunities and have not so far been able to
transform favorable public opinion into the powerful and undeniable force for
change that it should have been. We believe that the moment for decisive action
for full gay equality is here -- that this moment is a historic imperative. The
goal of Equality Matters is to leverage our expertise in media and
communications, and politics and policy, to support those who share that belief
and help create an environment where policymakers, the courts, the media and
the public at large understand that gay rights are human rights.

Despite the
important victory we have just witnessed, make no mistake about it: we are
still the only class of Americans for whom discrimination is codified into
state and federal law. We have a lot of work to do.

Three basic
commitments; and substantial progress.

President Obama
made three core commitments to Americans on lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender equality. He would end "don't ask, don't tell"; fight for and sign
into law legislation with basic employment anti-discrimination protections; and
work hard to repeal the federal anti-gay marriage law (the so-called Defense of
Marriage Act, or DOMA). We have now achieved one out of three.

This milestone
on "don't ask" repeal and the other progress we have made would not have been
possible without true political leadership. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New
York is perhaps the most significant example of someone who, as she has stepped
on to the national stage, has embraced the cause of equal rights for gays and
lesbians as one of her signature issues. Gavin Newsom, the new
lieutenant governor of California and the first elected official there to grant
marriage licenses to same-sex couples, is another.

There are others
less well known, like Iowa State Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, who when
urged to allow legislative action on reversing Iowa's court-imposed marriage
equality rule, recently said: "The easy political thing for me to do years
ago would have been to say, 'Oh, let's let this thing go. It's just too
political and too messy.'" But, he added, "What's ugly is giving up what you
believe in - that everybody has the same rights. Giving up on that? That's
ugly."

And we have
witnessed profound profiles in courage and conviction in the "don't ask, don't
tell" debate. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff made a passionate case for open military service. Gen. John
Shalikashvili and Former NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark were other important
voices. Rep. Patrick Murphy and Sen. Joe Lieberman simply refused to give up.

The "don't ask,
don't tell" rule was first created in 1993. I was serving on the White House
staff at the time and later became a special assistant and LGBT advisor to
President Bill Clinton. The president, who supported fully open military
service, was thwarted in that goal by then chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin
Powell (a Bush holdover) and Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Sam Nunn, who both
strenuously opposed letting gays serve. The new rule was supposed to be a
compromise of sorts - a midway point. Gays could serve, just not openly. It
never turned out that way.

In the almost
two decades since "don't ask, don't tell" was enacted, the world has changed
dramatically. Our perceptions have changed. Our expectations are higher around
issues of basic fairness, dignity, and respect, both as a result of sweeping
changes in the culture and changes in our politics as well. It's hard to
imagine a rule like "don't ask, don't tell" being made law today. Even
President Clinton eventually denounced the law and he has since become a supporter
of equal marriage rights.

Marriage
equality takes center stage.

The key issue
President Obama and other policymakers face now is gay marriage. In the civil
rights community, it has become a litmus test of sorts on whether one supports
full equality. As an Illinois state legislator, Mr. Obama favored marriage
equality and a generally more expansive view of gay rights. But as
he ran for higher office, his position became more cautious (he now favors
civil unions), although he recently told blogger Joe Sudbay that "attitudes
evolve, including mine."

While some
policymakers still exist in both parties who think that support for marriage
equality is too much to ask, positions on this issue are changing rapidly as
the culture of the country progresses. Former Vice President Dick
Cheney, former first lady Laura Bush, former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olsen,
former party chair Ken Mehlman, and Cindy and Meghan McCain all form the core
of Republican supporters of marriage equality.

With New York
Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo pushing for marriage equality legislation in the state
early this spring and the federal court about to confer it (again) in
California, it may not be long before it is the norm for many citizens across
the country because of momentum created outside Washington, including in Iowa
and the Northeastern states. In fact, in addition to New York, pro-marriage
governors were also elected this year in California, Maryland, Minnesota, Rhode
Island, and New Hampshire.

Another
important factor in the evolution of where we are today is the democratizing
impact that "new media" and the Internet have had on the equality movement.
Bloggers like John Aravosis, David Mixner, Pam Spaulding, Joe Sudbay and Andy
Towle have been an invaluable resource, providing up-to-date, provocative
information to the gay political community that it could not get elsewhere.

Partially as an
outgrowth of all this information, new gay rights groups like Get Equal and
Fight Back New York, formed just this year, were able to demonstrate that you
could get results by being tough on friend and foe alike (a fact almost no one
in Washington seems to get).

The struggle for
marriage equality goes back to the late 1980s when groups like Lambda Legal and
leaders like civil rights attorney Evan Wolfson (now head of the equality group
Freedom to Marry), brought the original same-sex marriage
case. Many, even those who were gay rights supporters then, thought
they were asking too much. The truth is that they were visionaries.

Last year,
following voter approval of the anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 in California,
another visionary, Chad Griffin, formed the American Foundation for Equal
Rights. He hired two of the best lawyers in America, one of them the
most respected conservative legal figure in the country, former Republican
Solicitor General Ted Olson and Democratic legal superstar David
Boies. Together, they have since won the most sweeping gay rights
court ruling in history.

That ruling
captured an historical imperative. Supporting full equal rights is no longer
out of the political mainstream, nor should we let our elected officials fail
to seize this moment in history to embrace the dignity of each and every human
being. Anyone who misses the opportunity will undoubtedly find themselves on
the wrong side of history.

And as the
Democratic Party starts work on its new national party platform next year, it
will have to face the issue head on, as will President Obama.

The
challenges ahead.

Historically,
some Democrats have believed in the faulty premise that voters who care about
gay equality have no alternative but to support all Democrats. In
fact, even within the Democratic Party there has always been a range of views,
including some real champions (Howard Dean, for example, was the first
significant political leader to support early civil unions) and some not.

Now we have even
more options. In my home state of New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, another
marriage equality supporter and a Republican-turned-Independent, has staked out
many aggressively pro-gay positions.

The gay Log
Cabin Republicans made an important contribution earlier this year when their
long languishing federal court case become the first to significantly and
broadly strike down "don't ask, don't tell."

Then comes the
issue of money. Gay and lesbian donors to the Democratic Party are
frustrated with the sometimes slow place of change. Moreover, gay rights have
become significantly more important to progressive donors generally, who are
directing their substantial resources toward those who support full equality,
ignoring those who don't.

Washington-based
gay rights groups have faced daunting challenges in the past two years. With
friends in power, it often seems like change should come more easily. As a
former White House official, I understand how that view is part of the Beltway
culture. Additionally, whenever a new Democratic administration arrives,
especially when it is preceded by a conservative one, progressives generally
have long lists of items they all want done right away. The fact is, not
everything can be first on the list. I understand that, too.

But equality
groups have had another huge obstacle. They have had to try to be strategic
sometimes without clear and consistent White House guidance. Let's face it:
LGBT rights lobbyists were in the same position as many other progressive
activists (for example, those for immigration and climate change) - they often
had to make strategy decisions based on mixed signals from the administration.

Because
President Obama lacked close relationships or long-standing political
connections to gay rights leaders, he should have appointed a senior staff
person to oversee policy formulation on equality issues across the government
from the start.

During the early
days of the new administration, in a Washington Post op-ed I urged President Obama to talk
about equal rights with the passion he seemed to project during the campaign. That
is exactly what he did following passage of the "don't ask, don't tell" bill
this past weekend. When I read the president's statement I knew, again, that he
was with us.

Now, even with
an incoming Congress not fully in his corner, the president still has enormous
power to fight ongoing discrimination through enforcement regulations and by
instructing the Justice Department to fight for an expansion of rights rather
than a contraction of them.

Going forward,
we must continue to do battle against the cynical obstructionists of the
right-wing apparatus and conservative movement who still try to exploit fear
for their own partisan and anti-Obama political reasons. It's clear the
right-wing wants to continue to have this fight through the upcoming
presidential election and -- as candidate Bob Dole tried to do against Bill
Clinton in 1996 with the issue of marriage -- use it as a wedge against
Democrats and progressives.

At the same
time, we should insist that President Obama show moral leadership on marriage
equality by not only endorsing it now, but by using his considerable powers of
persuasion to help all Americans understand why equality matters.